The present invention relates to the field of cassettes for containing and dispensing rolls of photosensitive material.
Generally rectangular cassettes for containing and dispensing rolls of photosensitive material have been employed for many years. In view of cost factors, these casettes are often manufactured out of cardboard as they are discarded after the roll of photosensitive material is exhausted. One such cartridge is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,389.
However, it may be appreciated from FIG. 1 of the '389 patent that a generally rectangular shape is not the optimum cassette shape for containing a roll of photosensitive material. Such a package configuration is space inefficient due to the unused volume at each corner of the cassette.
U.S. Pat. No. Des 276,439 shows a generally round cassette for photosensitive material. Although a more space efficient design, a round cassette suffers from many additional limitations. A round cassette cannot be stacked, has a tendency to roll over, and can misalign when inserted into a machine which consumes photosensitive material such as a phototypesetter. Further, a round cassette is not compatible with the current population of machines, originally configured for generally rectangular cassettes, which are already in use.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cassette for containing and dispensing photosensitive material which is space efficient yet does not suffer from the aforementioned drawbacks associated with round cassettes.